Bill to seize property of fugitives unveiled

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday unveiled a draft law which seeks to confiscate properties of “fugitive economic offenders” and plug loopholes to deter offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of domestic courts.

The draft legislation is seen as a measure to deal with cases such as beleaguered liquor baron Vijay Mallya who has fled to the United Kingdom. The government is seeking Mallya’s extradition from the UK as he has defaulted on loans worth Rs 9,000 crore from state-run banks linked to his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

"It is widely felt that the spectre of high-value economic offenders absconding from India to defy the legal process seriously undermines the rule of law in India. It is, therefore, felt necessary to provide an effective, expeditious and constitutionally permissible deterrent to ensure that such actions are curbed,” a government statement said detailing the new “Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2017”.

In his 2017-18, finance minister Arun Jaitley had said that the government is considering to introduce legislative changes or even a new law to confiscate the assets of such absconders till they submit to the jurisdiction of the appropriate legal forum. The bill has a provision for a court of law (‘special court’ under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act) to declare a person a fugitive economic offender.

According to the bill, a fugitive economic offender is a person who has an arrest warrant issued in a scheduled offence and who leaves or has left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution or refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution.

“A scheduled offence refers to a list of economic offences contained in the schedule to this bill,” a government statement said.

To ensure that courts are not over-burdened with such cases, only those cases where the total value involved in such offences is Rs 100 crore or more will be within the ambit of the bill. It said that once a person is declared a fugitive economic offender two consequences will ensue: First, any property that is a proceed of crime that the person is accused of, as well as any property owned by such person in India will be confiscated and vested in the government of India free from all encumbrances.

“Second, at the discretion of any court, such person or any company where he is a promoter or key managerial personnel or majority shareholder, may be disentitled from bringing forward or defending any civil claim. If at any point of time in the course of the proceeding prior to the declaration however, the alleged fugitive economic offender returns to India and submits to the appropriate jurisdictional court, proceedings under this Act would cease by law,” the draft bill said.

The government has sought comments and suggestions from the public and all other stakeholders to the draft bill by June 3. Once the bill is approved by Parliament, it will override other legislations dealing with economic offences. “There have been several instances of economic offenders fleeing the jurisdiction of Indian courts, anticipating the commencement, or during the pendency, of criminal proceedings,” a finance ministry statement said.